Tor

Tor is an encrypted anonymising network that makes it harder to intercept internet communications, or see where communications are coming from or going to.

In order to use the WikiLeaks public submission system as detailed above you can download the Tor Browser Bundle, which is a Firefox-like browser available for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux and pre-configured to connect using the anonymising system Tor.

Tails

If you are at high risk and you have the capacity to do so, you can also access the submission system through a secure operating system called Tails. Tails is an operating system launched from a USB stick or a DVD that aim to leaves no traces when the computer is shut down after use and automatically routes your internet traffic through Tor. Tails will require you to have either a USB stick or a DVD at least 4GB big and a laptop or desktop computer.

Tips

Our submission system works hard to preserve your anonymity, but we recommend you also take some of your own precautions. Please review these basic guidelines.

1. Contact us if you have specific problems

If you have a very large submission, or a submission with a complex format, or are a high-risk source, please contact us. In our experience it is always possible to find a custom solution for even the most seemingly difficult situations.

2. What computer to use

If the computer you are uploading from could subsequently be audited in an investigation, consider using a computer that is not easily tied to you. Technical users can also use Tails to help ensure you do not leave any records of your submission on the computer.

3. Do not talk about your submission to others

If you have any issues talk to WikiLeaks. We are the global experts in source protection – it is a complex field. Even those who mean well often do not have the experience or expertise to advise properly. This includes other media organisations.

After

1. Do not talk about your submission to others

If you have any issues talk to WikiLeaks. We are the global experts in source protection – it is a complex field. Even those who mean well often do not have the experience or expertise to advise properly. This includes other media organisations.

2. Act normal

If you are a high-risk source, avoid saying anything or doing anything after submitting which might promote suspicion. In particular, you should try to stick to your normal routine and behaviour.

3. Remove traces of your submission

If you are a high-risk source and the computer you prepared your submission on, or uploaded it from, could subsequently be audited in an investigation, we recommend that you format and dispose of the computer hard drive and any other storage media you used.

In particular, hard drives retain data after formatting which may be visible to a digital forensics team and flash media (USB sticks, memory cards and SSD drives) retain data even after a secure erasure. If you used flash media to store sensitive data, it is important to destroy the media.

If you do this and are a high-risk source you should make sure there are no traces of the clean-up, since such traces themselves may draw suspicion.

4. If you face legal action

If a legal action is brought against you as a result of your submission, there are organisations that may help you. The Courage Foundation is an international organisation dedicated to the protection of journalistic sources. You can find more details at https://www.couragefound.org.

Submit documents to WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks publishes documents of political or historical importance that are censored or otherwise suppressed. We specialise in strategic global publishing and large archives.

The following is the address of our secure site where you can anonymously upload your documents to WikiLeaks editors. You can only access this submissions system through Tor. (See our Tor tab for more information.) We also advise you to read our tips for sources before submitting.

wlupld3ptjvsgwqw.onion

Copy this address into your Tor browser. Advanced users, if they wish, can also add a further layer of encryption to their submission using our public PGP key.

If you cannot use Tor, or your submission is very large, or you have specific requirements, WikiLeaks provides several alternative methods. Contact us to discuss how to proceed.

Two Kenyan rights activists shot dead

From WikiLeaks

Locals look at the car in which Paul Oulu and Oscar Kingara were shot dead in Nairobi. Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP

Two Kenyan human rights activists who provided evidence to a senior UN investigator over execution-style murders by police were assassinated on a busy Nairobi street yesterday evening.

Oscar Kamau Kingara, the director of the Oscar Foundation, and its programme coordinator, John Paul Oulo, were shot at close range in their car by gunmen less than a mile from the presidential residence.

Only a few hours earlier the government had publicly accused their organisation, which runs free legal aid clinics for the poor, of being a front for a criminal gang.

A coalition of civil society organisations released a statement blaming police for the murders.

"These were very decent men who had done more work than anybody in examining police killings," said Cyprian Nyamwamu, the executive director of the National Convention Executive Council, a non-governmental organisation advocating social and economic reform. "I have no doubt that is why they were killed."

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the UN demanded an immediate investigation into the deaths.

Police have denied any involvement and attributed yesterday's killings to "rivalry or thuggery".

The Oscar Foundation made its name investigating police abuses. Since 2007 it has reported 6,452 "enforced disappearances" by police and 1,721 extrajudicial killings.

Many of those killed were alleged members of the feared Mungiki gang, which runs Mafia-like networks but was also used by members of President Mwai Kibaki's party to launch retaliatory attacks during last year's election violence.

Kingara, a 37-year-old lawyer who founded the organisation in 1998, recently presented his detailed findings on police killings to two parliamentary committees.

He and Oulo, a former student leader, met and briefed Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, when he was conducting a 10-day investigation in security force abuses in Kenya last month.

Alston's scathing report, which criticised Kibaki and called for the sacking of the police chief and the attorney general, caused uproar in Kenya and deeply angered the authorities.

Alfred Mutua, a Government spokesman, said in his weekly press conference yesterday that the UN report had emboldened Mungiki, which held protests against the extrajudicial killings just hours before the murders.

Mutua accused the Oscar Foundation of raising funds for Mungiki and of planning the protests.

Eric Kiraithe, a police spokesman, had warned that the security forces were "definitely going to get" those behind the demonstrations.

Kingara admitted helping relatives of dead Mungiki members to seek justice but strongly denied any formal relations with the gang. In a radio interview shortly before his death Kingara said he would sue Mutua over the allegations.

"This was a completely false accusation by the police," said Mwalimu Mati, a prominent civil society activist who had worked with Kingara on a project examining illegal land grabs.

Kingara and Oulo had been driving along State House Road to a meeting at the KNCHR at 6pm yesterday when their path was blocked by at least two cars. Two gunmen emerged from a minivan and shot through the driver and passenger windows.

The assailants kept firing into the air to keep any bystanders away until they were sure both men were dead, before escaping in the van.

Police said that students from the nearby University of Nairobi moved Oulo's body into a hostel and one student was shot dead when officers tried to retrieve it.

Three officers who fired live rounds inside the university had been arrested, police said.

In a statement from New York, Alston expressed shock at the news and called for a foreign-led investigation into the murders, suggesting that Scotland Yard or the South African police be involved.

"It is extremely troubling when those working to defend human rights in Kenya can be assassinated in broad daylight in the middle of Nairobi," Alston said.

Backstory: police brutality

The UN investigation into murders by Kenyan police published last week found strong evidence of "systematic, widespread and carefully planned extrajudicial executions undertaken on a regular basis".

The report by the UN special rapporteur Philip Alston looked at killings during political protests, a counterinsurgency campaign in Mount Elgon, and attempts to wipe out the Mungiki criminal gang. Human rights groups said more than 500 alleged gang members had been kidnapped and murdered by police death squads since 2007.

"These are not 'rogue' squads, but are police who are acting on the explicit orders of their superiors," said Alston, who praised the quality of reporting and analysis by groups such as the Oscar Foundation.

His findings were boosted by the release of a video interview conducted by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights with a police whistleblower who described witnessing 58 murders by a special police unit. Four months after the interview last year, Bernard Kiriinya was shot in the back of the head in Nairobi. No arrests have been made.

First seen in The Guardian. Thanks to Xan Rice and The Guardian for covering these documents and the tragic loss.